How Elections Are Won: Why Campaigns Waste Millions | Cliff Maloney

Get involved with Cliff Maloney and Citizens Alliance:

Volunteer or join the door-knocking team: https://www.commit100.org/

Sponsor a day of door knocking: https://sponsordoors.com/

How are elections won when millions in campaign spending still leave voters at home? Cliff Maloney joins Jeff Fargo to break down the ground game behind voter turnout, ballot chasing and the 2026 midterms.

Cliff is the CEO of Citizens Alliance, founder of the PA Chase and author of Run Right. He explains why campaign consultants favor expensive media buys, what it takes to recruit and manage paid door knockers, and why registered supporters do not always become actual voters.

This full Fargo Talks conversation goes inside campaign budgets, grassroots organizing, early voting and the partnership with Turning Point Action. Cliff also discusses Charlie Kirk's approach to activism, his organization's 2026 field plans in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire, and the longer game leading into 2028.

We also get into where artificial intelligence helps with voter data and text conversations, where human relationships still matter, and why raising resourceful kids starts with letting them figure things out.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet Cliff Maloney

02:02 The ground-game gap in election campaigns

05:36 Recruiting and training paid door knockers

11:42 Why registered voters stay home